You want to be polite when you’re talking with friends. You want your customers, co-workers, and manager to recognize that you’re fully engaged when you’re at work. With family, you might find it easier to simply tune out the conversation and ask the person near you to fill in what you missed, just a little louder, please.
You need to lean in a little closer when you’re on zoom calls. You pay attention to body language and facial clues and listen for verbal inflections. You read lips. And if none of that works, you nod as if you heard every word.
Maybe your in denial. Your straining to keep up because you missed most of the conversation. Life at home and projects at work have become unnecessarily overwhelming and you are feeling frustrated and isolated due to years of progressive hearing loss.
Some research shows that situational factors like environmental acoustics, background noise, contending signals, and environmental awareness have a strong influence on how a person hears. These factors are always in play, but it can be far worse for individuals who are suffering from hearing loss.
There are some revealing behaviors that will raise your awareness of whether you’re in denial about how your hearing impairment is affecting your social and professional life:
- Finding it harder to hear over the phone
- Feeling as if people are mumbling and not speaking clearly
- Pretending to understand, only to later ask others what you missed
- Cupping your hands over your ear or leaning in close to the person who is speaking without noticing it
- Constantly having to ask people to repeat themselves
- Unable to hear people talking from behind you
While it may feel like this snuck up on you suddenly, chances are your hearing loss didn’t happen overnight. Acknowledging and getting help for hearing impairment is something that takes most individuals at least 7 years.
So if you’re noticing symptoms of hearing loss, you can bet that it’s been occurring for some time undetected. So start by making an appointment now, and stop kidding yourself, hearing loss is no joke.